"Kobe Bryant: A League of His Own" Review

When Kobe Bryant: A League of His Own came across my desk, I naturally had an interest in reviewing the book. I've been watching NBA basketball since I was a little kid, and Kobe Bryant has long been the enemy of some of my favorite teams over the years. When I was a Suns fan from 2004-2012, I remember how much I wanted to see Kobe lose when he had to face Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns in the playoffs during those years: I remember the thrill of watching the Suns come back from a 3-1 series deficit in the 2006 playoffs and the dominating 4-1 series win in the first round of the 2007 playoffs, and I also remember the bittersweet 2010 playoffs when Kobe, Paul Gasol, and company beat my favorite Suns team of all-time 4-2 in the Western Conference Finals.

When I was a Heat fan from 2010-2014, I took great pride in watching Lebron and Wade dominate against Kobe's Laker teams in the regular season.

Having said all that, I am man enough to admit that when it comes to talent, Kobe was one of the top-10 players in the NBA when he was in his prime and at the end of his prime before the injuries caught up to him. Since I've seen Kobe play on television countless times over the years, it was with great interest that I wanted to read Kobe Bryant: A League of His Own.

As far as what the book covers, we get a look into Kobe's upbringing as a child all the way up to when he was drafted. After that, we have 1-2 page summaries of each and every season of Kobe's career that basically gave the lowdown of what the team did on the season, and what they did in the playoffs. We also have a chapter that lists all of the weightlifting exercises that Kobe does, and we have chapters containing interesting facts about Kobe as well as a chapter listing all the accolades and statistics that Kobe acquired over the course of his NBA career. Throughout the book are a number of high-quality color pictures of Kobe in action.

One of the book's positive features is that it contains all of the necessary information about Kobe that an 8-10 year-old basketball fan would want to know, which is what Kobe and his team did in each season, and a player card containing Kobe's overall stat line in each season. Aside from a couple typos, the book's grammar was clean, and it was formatted well for Kindle. One of the things I didn't like about the book is that the book is marketed in a way that makes you think that you're about to get a lot of information about what was going on with Kobe behind the scenes and in-between seasons, and I was let down by the fact that such information was not present. Personally, I would have liked more details about Kobe's behind-the-scenes relationship with Shaq back in the early 2000s, and I would have liked more information about Kobe's relationship with his teammates during the 2007-2013 time frame. Giving us access to such information would have given us a lot better idea of what Kobe was like as a person and teammate.

If you're looking for a deep, comprehensive book about the life of Kobe on and off the court that gives you an idea of what he was like as a person, then you probably will want to stay clear of this book. However, if you're an 8-10 year-old basketball fan looking to learn more about one of best players in NBA history, or you know an 8-10 year-old basketball fan who would love to read such a book, then I would recommend you show them Kobe Bryant: A League of His Own.

Final Grade:  B 

"Arcanaland Series Book 1: Far From Shandesto" Review

Do you love fantasy adventures? Do you love witches and gnomes? Do you love potions and magic spells? Do you love portals to magical worlds? Do you like stories that are set in the multiverse? Are you into new ageism and Eastern religious thought? Are you a fan of franchises like Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia? If you are, then you might want to check out Arcanaland Series Book 1: Far From Shandesto by Wyborn Senna.

Wyborn Senna has a a bachelor’s degree in Journalism/Mass Communication from St. Bonaventure University, a Masters in Professional Writing degree from USC, and is published by Full Fathom Five Digital. Inspired by metaphysical studies, Far From Shandesto is the first in a series of fantasy novels that take readers on a journey to different lands where they encounter situations and characters inspired by new-age subject matter including tarot and oracle decks.

The story starts out with Holly, Jen, Sophia, and Rob going to the house of a Gypsie. We're told that four years earlier, three senior guys from their school disappeared in the woods around the gypsie's house, and everyone goes into the Gypsy's house to see if she's home. Before too long, everyone finds themselves transported to Arcanaland, a universe where the laws of physics are radically different from ours, and they promptly run into Trath, Alejo, and Will, the three senior guys who disappeared four years earlier. It also turns out that the Gypsy is Leticia Elizondo, who had been in Arcanaland many years before. After they all meet up and get acquainted, they split up and embark on a journey to find a way back to their world, each group heading to a different location that supposedly will allow them to return home.

One of the most positive aspects of the book is that it thrusts you very dramatically into the world of Arcanaland; not much time passes from the very beginning of the book when we see Holly, Jen, Sophia, and Rob at the school to the four of them discovering the magical, vast world of Arcanaland as they're met by multiple people. The book also does a solid job of combining a Harry Potter-like wizarding world with the talking animals, dimensional travel world of The Chronicles of Narnia. Sadly, this book had many typos in it, most of which are missing quotation marks that make it hard to tell if someone is speaking or not at first glance in some cases, and is just annoying in other cases. Also, this book promotes many Eastern religious ideas that are not true, such as on page 125 when Alejo describes the process of reincarnation in relation to the ghosts of Lake Etherea. While such ideas might make for entertaining reading in a science fiction novel, they are completely unfalsifiable in the real world.

To make it clear, I'm not into fantasy adventures that involve wizardry, spells, potions, and magic worlds in general, so it's hard for me to appreciate what this book has to offer, and the fact that the book feels like a knock-off brand of the Chronicles of Narnia doesn't really help me. However, if you are interested in this kind of novel, then Arcanaland Series Book 1: Far From Shandesto might be for you.

Final Grade: B-

"Occupied" Review

So far in my time as a book reviewer, the majority of the books I have read, with a few exceptions, tend to have more of a religious/supernatural element to them, many of which contained Christian themes and elements. So when I came across Occupied by Joss Sheldon, I found myself dealing with a story and world that I had yet to explore as a book reviewer.

According to his website, Joss Sheldon is a 34-year-old man who has a degree from the London School of Economics. Before he became a writer, Sheldon spent his time “selling falafel at music festivals, being a ski-bum, and failing to turn the English Midlands into a haven of rugby league”. In 2013, Sheldon moved to McLeod Gan, a village in India full of Tibetan refugees. This turned out to be the beginning of his travels that eventually led him to write Occupied.

Occupied is a story from the perspective of four different people in the Middle East who experience occupations of various sorts over the course of their lives. The story starts out following Tamsin and her daily life with the Godlies in the village of Doomba. After Doomba is attacked by a group of people known as The Holies, Tamsin and the surviving Godlies of Doomba relocate to the town of Natale as refugees. After that, the story switches to the perspective of Ellie, a Natale native whose father, like many of the natives, complains that the refugees are stealing their jobs, and that they should be expelled from their land. Without giving away too much more of the plot, the story shifts to the perspective of the colonisers who come in later and occupy Natale after the six-day war (a boy named Arun), and the perspective of a family of economic immigrants who come in later (through the eyes of a boy named Charlie).

Some of the positives of this book are that Sheldon really captures the feel of a small village like Doomba and a small third-world town like Natale from the perspective of a child running through the village, and running through the streets and marketplace. Sheldon also does a fantastic job of capturing the irony of the refugees complaining about the Protokian soldiers taking away their jobs after the natives of Natale lodged the same complaint about the refugees earlier in the story. The thing that stops me from giving this book an A grade is the fact that part of the story is based on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Sheldon seems to be sympathetic to the narrative of that issue, which is that the Palestinians were living in the land that Israel has occupied since 1948 before Israel was given that land by the UN, and that the Israel claim that their ancestors lived in the land long before the Palestinians did (which is true if you know the historical records contained in the Old and New Testaments) is somehow illegitimate.

While I have a pretty strong disagreement with the part of the story that refers to the Israel-Palestine conflict, I will say that Sheldon has given us a book that is highly readable, well-written, and allows us to relate to the characters involved in the conflict. If you're looking for a heart-wrenching story about ordinary people living through different occupations in the middle east, then feel free to get Occupied.

Final Grade: B+